t liberty to run his chances or to abstain from playing his card. If he
abstains he loses nothing but his own stake, for as long as there are no
forfeits in the basket each player puts in a trifling sum. If he plays
and wins a trick he is paid _pro rata_ to the stake; that is, if there
are five sous in the basket, he wins one sou. The player who fails
to win a trick is made _mouche_; he has to pay the whole stake, which
swells the basket for the next game. Those who decline to play throw
down their cards during the game; but their play is held to be null. The
players can exchange their cards with the remainder of the pack, as
in ecarte, but only by order of sequence, so that the first and second
players may, and sometimes do, absorb the remainder of the pack between
them. The turned-over trump card belongs to the dealer, who is always
the last; he has the right to exchange it for any card in his own hand.
One powerful card is of more importance than all the rest; it is called
Mistigris. Mistigris is the knave of clubs.

This game, simple as it is, is not lacking in interest. The cupidity
natural to mankind develops in it; so does diplomatic wiliness; also
play of countenance. At the hotel du Guenic, each of the players took
twenty counters, representing five sous; which made the sum total of the
stake for each game five farthings, a large amount in the eyes of
this company. Supposing some extraordinary luck, fifty sous might be
won,--more capital than any person in Guerande spent in the course of
any one day. Consequently Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel put into this game
(the innocence of which is only surpassed in the nomenclature of the
Academy by that of La Bataille) a passion corresponding to that of the
hunters after big game. Mademoiselle Zephirine, who went shares in the
game with the baroness, attached no less importance to it. To put up one
farthing for the chance of winning five, game after game, was to this
confirmed hoarder a mighty financial operation, into which she put as
much mental action as the most eager speculator at the Bourse expends
during the rise and fall of consols.

By a certain diplomatic convention, dating from September, 1825, when
Mademoiselle de Pen-Hoel lost thirty-five sous, the game was to cease
as soon as a person losing ten sous should express the wish to retire.
Politeness did not allow the rest to give the retiring player the pain
of seeing the game go on without him. But, as all passion